Unrest against Munda had been brewing since May this year when former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi left the BJP. Though MLAs backing Marandi stayed back, discontent remained. Munda did nothing to reach out to leaders, even Yashwant Sinha.

The unrest within the BJP emboldened Independent MLAs to assert themselves. Once R K Anand threw the bait of chief ministership to Koda, the latter began mobilising Independent MLAs.

When the first reports of the crisis came in, there was total confusion in the BJP headquarters in New Delhi. Central party in-charge Sumitra Mahajan was clueless and BJP president Rajnath Singh who, along with Munda, had outwitted the Congress-JMM combine to grab power, was not ready to be involved in any deals, given his present position.

Nor was Rajnath Singh open to the idea of deputing someone like Venkaiah Naidu to the state. Sources said when some leaders favoured the idea of calling it a day, two proposals were floated. One was to try and break the RJD group to make up for the loss of Independents. Another was to offer the chief ministership to JMM leader Shibu Soren and form a coalition with him.

But it now appears that the BJP high command is leaving it to Munda to do whatever he can to save his government.

The imminent loss of government in one more state is a major setback for the BJP which has been unable to arrest the decline in its fortunes.